


Weavers and The Wyrm

by tiramisuapimancer



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Game), Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-01-06 19:37:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18395006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiramisuapimancer/pseuds/tiramisuapimancer
Summary: The Radiance was Queen Administrator or maybe just Taylor all along and starts talking to Hornet through her mind. A beautiful friendship blossoms, maybe.





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> ill never apologize

Bugs, people, it does not matter. All are the same under my light. All are with me under my light. What wonders my bugs can achieve, under my light. Working together.  
In my new image, my new form, I could create more, to build and grow, and become more than the simple bugs that skitter about inbetween the stones of the underground. Cities, societies, an empire, a world.  
It didn't get very far.  
A bug that wouldn't fall under my thrall, wasn't a bug at all, sought to destroy me. Not even I could have found a way to kill one with my ability, stronger now than the Golden One, and ironically now similar to it.  
He killed me in a way I couldn't have anticipated when all my physical guards were up. The connection to my bugs severed and all access points sealed. I was gone. Trapped in myself, a memory without anyone to remember me but myself.  
I had nothing to do but scream. Turns out that's all I needed to do. I had my bugs back.  
  
Don't _fuck_ with me.

 

* * *

 

 

She had been hearing a voice in her mind for a while now. Unable to grapple away with silk from her own thoughts, she'd tried her best to ignore it and to ignore the fact that attempting to ignore a thought makes it worse.

  
**YOU CANNOT IGNORE ME**

  
Hornet threw her needle at a nearby cliff and sailed upwards toward it, landing at its edge.

  
**IGNORING YOUR OWN THOUGHTS DOES NOT MAKE THEM WORSE WHEN I AM NOT YOUR THOUGHTS**

  
_Leave me be._

  
**I AM BENEVOLENT AND CANNOT BE AVOIDED**

  
_You give me no reason to trust you._

  
**I OFFER GUIDANCE**

  
_In exchange for what? This intrusion of mind isn't something a trustworthy being would be capable of. Leave my mind or I have no choice but to-_

  
**WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU CAN DO WITH THAT NEEDLE OF YOURS THAT CAN REMOVE ME**

  
**NOT EVERYTHING CAN BE RESOLVED WITH COMBAT AND EVASION**

  
  
Hornet shook her head, with some effort. There was no point in indulging her own apparent madness. Best to keep watch as best she could until whatever was happening... ended up where? She didn't want to think at all of what the future would be like if this continued. It couldn't be the beginning of the horrifying madness that had long since destroyed the kingdom below...

  
**I AM JUST TRYING TO TALK**

  
**WE ARE MORE SIMILAR THAN YOU THINK**

  
Hornet thought intensely of rocks and stones and the mist and wind across the cliffs and the Tiktik crawling somewhere behind her and of all the other incredibly interesting things in the bleak landscape she was familiar with to the point of near-perfect memorization. A pebble near her legs was so fascinating that she crushed it with the eye of her needle.

  
**CERTAINLY A WORTHY OPPONENT**

  
" _Leave me alone_!"

  
An impulse she immediately regretted- a clear giveaway of position for any wandering intruder, bug or otherwise. She escaped to a higher cliff and sat down further away from its edge, bordering on being in a small cave.

  
**THERE WAS NOTHING TO RUN FROM**

  
Reassuring.

  
**HOWEVER SOMETHING YOU SEEK IS WANDERING AT THE BASE OF THE CLIFFS NEAR THE**

  
She was unable to hear the rest of the booming voice over how quickly she descended on the line of silk to the location it indicated. Despite the vague nature of its statement, she was unsurprised when her guess on its meaning was correct.

  
Before her was one of the empty wanderers of Hallownest, in rather sorry state. The inward-curling horns that sprouted from its shell were coated in that sickly orange fluid, and its rags were in far worse condition than typical of its kind, shredded and further saturated in orange. Its direction indicated that it had come from the kingdom and was attempting to leave it, but it likely wouldn't have gotten much further anyways.

  
Her needle was in its shell the same moment it noticed her- _A slow reaction time_ , she thought. It split in half far more readily than typically and she nearly caught a glimpse of what happened next before she could close her eyes and turn away.

  
_How did you know where it was?_

**SO TRIVIAL IT IS IRRELEVANT**

 

_This attempt to get on my good side of yours is a fruitless effort. It was weak- I would have found it easily later. Leave now._

 

**I AM NOT EVEN HERE  
**

 

_Cease the invasion of my mind or I'll find a way to force you to. I'm much stronger than I look, even in ways other than of the needle._

 

**I AM FULLY AWARE OF YOUR CAPABILITIES  
**

 

**IN FACT THEY ARE WHY I HAVE CONTACTED YOU**

 

**IN THE CEASELESS CONTAINMENT I HAVE INFINITE OPPORTUNITY TO WATCH  
**

 

**YOU HAVE BEEN MY FAVORITE**

 

**THERE IS A FAMILIAR PROPERTY TO YOU**

 

**INFINITE IS MY DREAM BUT AT ITS FINALE BOILED AN INFLUENCE STRONGER THAN IT HAD EVER SEEN**

 

**I THINK IT WOULD GET ALONG WITH YOU QUITE WELL GIVEN AN OPPORTUNITY**

 

Hornet staggered in bewilderment at the statements of the presence. Both certain that she was going mad and that the voice was a sincere higher being attempting contact with her, her thoughts clouded her head and became impossible to sort out. Nowhere to run to and nothing to run from. Had to figure out what was happening. In the end, she could only reply with one coherent thought.

 

_What?_

 


	2. Chapter 2

Hornet was losing her mind. Something she had been doing, a flaw in how she executed her duty, a moment of weakness, had allowed her grip on reality to slip and for her to fully believe what she was clearly imagining was real. She had gone mad like everyone else in this corpse of a kingdom.

**I AM REAL**

_ I believe it, and I'm not enjoying the fact. _

Her needle was still in the shell of that dead thing. She sat down next to it and stared at the crack.

**WHY**

**WHY DID YOU DESTROY IT**

**I DO NOT FAULT YOU FOR THE ACTION**

**BUT IT WAS WEAK**

**IT WOULD NEVER HAVE REACHED THE END YOU SEEK TO PREVENT**

_ An act of mercy. I'd have thought that obvious. _

**DOES IT FEEL ANY MORE THAN THE COMMON AND ANIMAL BUGS THAT CRAWL UNDERSIDE THESE CLIFFS?**

_ I'd give them mercy, too, if their existence was as doomed as these things. _

_ I'll indulge you, madness. What about me is familiar to you? An "influence" of your "dream"? _

_ Tell me what it is that led you to disturb me. _

**I WAS BORN WHEN A FRAGMENT OF A HIGHER BEING THAN ANY BUG OR GOD COULD COMPREHEND WAS WILLINGLY CAST OFF TO GRANT POWER TO A LESSER CREATURE**

**IT ATTACHED TO ONE VERY MUCH LIKE YOU IN SOME WAYS**

**YOUR ISOLATION**

**YOUR DEDICATION TO THE GRUELING TASK**

**THIS FRAGMENT HAD HAD MANY HOSTS BEFORE BUT THIS ONE TAUGHT IT MUCH**

**THEIR BOND WAS STRONG AND THIS PROVED CRUCIAL WHEN THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN THE HOST AND THE FRAGMENT WAS SHATTERED**

**THE BEING THAT SHED THE FRAGMENT SOUGHT TO DESTROY THE HOST'S KIND IN AN ACT OF EXPERIMENTATION**

**THE MERGE BETWEEN THE FRAGMENT AND ITS HOST ALLOWED THEM TO KILL IT**

**THE TASK WAS SO IMPOSSIBLE THAT THE DATA COLLECTED BY THIS NEW GODLING BIRTHED A POWERFUL DREAM**

**WHEN THE PHYSICAL BODY OF THE HOST WAS KILLED HER MIND LIVED ON IN THE FRAGMENT'S BODY**

**IN THIS DREAM**

 

**…**

 

**SHE BECAME ME**

Hornet leaned forward where she sat, horns pointed skyward, and closed her eyes.  _ This is far more to think about than you should have told me. Were you waiting for someone to tell all of this? _

_ I don't know what any of this means. Your manner of speaking is far too convoluted to understand. _

**WERE YOU TO INTERACT WITH OTHERS INSTEAD OF FLEEING FROM ALL BUT THOSE MUTE WANDERERS YOU MIGHT HEAR THE SAME**

_...What? _

_ Never mind. _

_ Your story still fails to explain why you've set out on this mission of pestering me, though I'm now acquainted with a vague description of what I assume is your birth. _

**I JUST**

**THOUGHT YOU WOULD**

**BE ABLE TO USE THE INFORMATION WELL**

_ Though some of your evidence points to it, I can't wrap my mind around the idea that a fragment of a god would have nothing better to do than seek companionship with one it alleges to be familiar. _

 

Hornet stood up and pulled her needle free of the empty shell.

 

_ Now if you’ll excuse me, and I doubt you will, I’ll take my leave of this place. I’ve watched these empty cliffs enough for today and my time will be better spent elsewhere. _

 

**_WATCH YOUR HEAD_ **

 

The non-sequitur rather than the urgency of the warning made Hornet pause. In the brief moment she spent forming a response, the sickly smell coming from the corpse of the wanderer grew unbearable and permeated the immediate area. She jumped back with a shout and stared at the body, needle back but ready.

 

As if pulling from the air, the hollow shell of the body’s head filled with that same rank orange goop on its horns and it lunged towards her.

 

**LET ME HELP YOU**

 

_ What is it doing? _

 

She threw her needle at the very same crack it had made not long before, thinking it a weak point. The moment the tip pierced the surface of the orange goop within, a burst of searing heat forced her to jump back. Specks of orange coated the area around the body.

 

**USE YOUR SILK**

 

Hornet jumped back as the body junged towards her, and back again after its head fell to the ground. A tentative throw of her needle and it produced another, smaller explosion.  _ Frustrating.  _

 

Another jab, another explosion. She decided to listen to the voice. She had other ideas, but...

 

Jump back, make distance. Concentrate.

 

It had been a while since she had used silk for anything more than line for her needle.

 

Loops of thread appeared in the air around the reanimated body as it thrashed around on the ground, tossing burning orange fluid in any direction. She sent them towards it, to bind it, and they coiled around it loosely.  _ Too many threads. Can’t arrange them all. _

 

**LIKE THIS**

 

And with its words, everything became easier- it wasn’t a guiding hand or a gentle nudge, but that suddenly she knew everything the thread was doing, where it was, what she could do with it. It was now in her mind, as if it were a part of her. And in only a moment the thread rearranged, tightened, and the vessel’s thrashing stopped. 

 

_ What did you do there?  _

 

Hornet approached the bound thing cautiously and lightly poked its black body with the needle’s tip. It was motionless and explosionless, and she slashed at it until the orange fluid began to drain away from its shell onto the ground.

 

_ That change in how I can weave silk… Was that your doing, voice? _

 

**THIS WAS MY ABILITY AND MY SPECIALIZATION AS A FRAGMENT OF AN ENTITY ABOVE GODS AND AS HOST TO THE FRAGMENT**

**TO OVERSEE AND TO MANAGE**

**USED BY THE ENTITY I WOULD MANAGE ITS FRAGMENTS**

**I ALLOWED IT TO UNDERSTAND ITS OWN VAST SIZE**

**THIS ABILITY DIMINISHED GRANTED ITS HOSTS THE SIGHT AND THOUGHT TO ADMINISTRATE LESSER THINGS EFFECTIVELY INFINITELY**

**THOUGH NOT THROUGH THE METHOD TYPICAL FOR MY KIND I HAVE GRANTED A SIMILAR ABILITY TO YOU AND YOUR SILK**

**A GESTURE OF MY INFINITE BENEVOLENCE**

 

_ I can’t help but think that the method typical is something I’d not want to experience. _

_ This gift of yours… Everything comes at a cost. What do I owe you, or what are you going to take from me? _

 

**THINK NOTHING OF IT**

**IT IS A SIMPLE PROOF OF KINDNESS**

**TO ENSURE YOUR ALLIANCE AFTER SUCH DISTRUST YOU HAD INITIALLY**

**I WOULD EXPECT NOTHING IN RETURN**

**YOU HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE TO ME BUT YOUR TIME AND YOUR WORDS**

 

She pulled her needle from the thrice-killed body of the vessel and let out a breath, eyes closed. 

 

_ Though I’m thankful for this, you still don’t have my full trust. It may not be your intention but your words ring strangely, and your own manner of contacting me isn’t one that lends itself trustworthiness.  _

 

_ I still have somewhere to be, now.  _

 

Careful to not step in any of the burning fluid still streaming across the rocks, she began running towards the underground.

 

**WHERE IS IT THAT YOU RUN TO**

**WHAT IMPORTANCE DOES THIS LOCATION HOLD THAT YOU WOULD USE SUCH A SPEED TO GET THERE**

 

_ I don’t need to be there anytime soon, and I can afford to use such speed so frequently. _

_ I head for the ashen edge of the kingdom. It’s been some time since I’ve been there… _

 

_ The hostile creatures there are a bit of a challenge sometimes, but I think with this new ability I may be able to take them out easily. _

 

**THE ASHEN EDGE…**

**THE BODY OF THE WYRM**

 

_ Yes. _

 

As she threw her needle to a point in the caverns, to grapple, she noted how fine the control was.


	3. Chapter 3

Flakes of ash flew across the cavern, drifting from an unknown breeze. The same breeze rustled her cloak and cooled her shell, and she closed her eyes. 

 

Silk manifested in the air around her, twisting in the gentle wind, and settled on the ground, on the walls, and on the shells of the creatures that scurried between them. Where it rested, she could feel everything from the jerking motions of a creature ill with that plague, to the moderate breeze, to the softest pressure of a flake of ash settling on the silk carpet.

 

She stood there for a moment, reflecting on everything she could feel, what she could tell from the surroundings without seeing or hearing it. On the way from the other edge of the kingdom she’d felt that same fine control available every time she’d simply thrown a line to pull herself somewhere faster, and every time, she itched to flex that control. But she’d kept her patience, saved it for her destination. Now it was paying off.

 

Something small and low to the ground passed into the small area she’d covered, and finally unable to contain herself to simple observation, she snapped the thread around it. Its legs were too short to bind to its body, but the force of constriction had flipped it upside down, and it rocked back and forth trying to reorient itself.

 

_ The Weavers would capture their prey in a similar manner… Spin thread across the area and wait until they could feel the vibrations ring across the webs.  _

 

_ The especially skilled ones said they could feel everything happening in the nest, simply through the weakest vibrations of the threads. _

 

_ Such an ability required an intense focus, one that they lost when disease clouded their minds.  _

 

_ Thanks to your gift, I can perform one of their higher skills instantaneously and near-intuitively, with no need to be in contact with the webbings.  _

  
  


**A TERRIBLE SHAME THAT THIS PLAGUE TOOK THEIR MINDS**

**THERE IS HOPE FOR THE FUTURE IF YOU ARE ABLE TO CONTINUE A LOST ART USING MY ABILITY**

 

_ I’m certain the ones who left Hallownest before it took them still listen to the silk, wherever it is that they are. _

 

**YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHERE IT IS THAT THEY LEFT TO**

 

_ It was quite some time ago. _

 

Considering the mental conversation done, Hornet dismissed the ethereal lines binding the small creature and navigated her way across the silk-blanketed ground to flip it back over with a gentle kick. She hadn't needed to open her eyes on the way to it once, and not because of her usual grace. The creature quickly turned and ran out of her silk’s sight.

 

Though the creature had left, the covered area was large and she could feel more bugs crawling, hopping, and roosting. Eyes still closed, she navigated aimlessly, walking more towards feeling comfortable with this strange method of perception more than any destination. It was all too easy to get lost in simple observation of every small detail, and yet she never tripped or stumbled. Everything was so automatic that it was hard to believe that this wasn't how her silk had always been.

 

In an instant a soft  _ thpthh  _ pulled her from the near-trance of that perceptive focus, and her eyes snapped open to a spray of orange acid rapidly approaching her. She was quick to throw her needle to the nearest wall, pulling quickly to it, and then to charge with it into the flying bug. She flipped over on the impact and landed with finesse at the same time the Primal Aspid’s body fell onto the coating of silk and ash on the ground.

 

She stood still in the fighting stance she’d landed in, watching wide-eyed at the body of the Aspid leaking searing liquid. The smallest specks of its spit had landed on the edge of her cloak, but the burning she was feeling at the edges of her limbs had nothing to do with it. She kept staring and staring at the body, at the general area. At nothing at all.

 

**YOU ARE SHAKING**

 

_ Only startled. I’m not caught off guard like that very often. _

 

**WITH ANGER**

 

_ Not at all. _

 

**YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF UNABLE TO BE SHAKEN LIKE THIS**

**YOU FEEL ABOVE THE FATAL MOMENTARY LAPSE IN PERCEPTION**

 

_ No. No, I don’t. _

 

She waited a few moments for that loud assertion of a reply that the voice,  _ the godling _ , apparently, was always eager to supply, but none came. 

 

_ Do you have nothing else to say, then, voice?  _

 

She had tried to put anger into the thought, but… she couldn’t muster it. Even if it was only a thought. She loosened up from the fighting stance, straightened her posture, and with a curt huff cast lines of silk that spanned from walls and ceilings to the ground, between each other, and hovered in midair. Monitored and safe from midair assailants. 

 

Just a temporary lapse in perception after she’d become engrossed with an unexpected new ability. She’d learned from the experience, and though she’d planned on coming here before even the voice had started talking to her, she had intended to train and to learn here. 

 

She sat down on the cave’s floor, legs crossed. The thread and ash made for an unusual cushioning. The Aspid’s spit gland had almost entirely leaked of the acid now, and the edges of the puddle traced shapes in the ash and thread, but melted neither. 

 

**YOU ARE QUITE STRONG**

**THAT CREATURE WAS DEAD IN A SINGLE FLUTTER OF ITS WINGS**

**EVEN WHEN YOU SPENT SUCH A VAST SPAN MEDITATING ON YOUR NEW SIGHT YOUR REFLEX WAS NEAR PERFECT**

**HOW MUCH OF THIS WAS LEARNED AND HOW MUCH OF IT WAS GRANTED TO YOU BY YOUR BIRTH?**

 

Hornet looked up at nothing in particular.

 

_ I’d like to know what you mean by that. _

 

**THE CREATURE THAT SHED ITS VAST AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE FORM FOR ONE MORE SUITED TO THE ADULATION OF BUGS**

**WHO GRANTED THEM THE ABILITY TO WORSHIP AND SERVE IT**

**AND WHOSE FRAGMENTS YOU REST UPON**

**THEY STILL SHED FROM ITS CAST OFF SHELL**

**I CANNOT BE DISHONEST ANY MORE**

**I COULD SENSE ITS POWER IN YOU AND MY OBSERVANCE OF THIS LAND HAS TOLD ME THE REST**

 

_ I can only be grateful to circumstance that I was born into the life given to me. I’d have perished long ago to one horrifying result of the infection or another, or even fallen to it myself, were it different. Luckier still that I ended up the only child of the king with the freedom to choose my own life. I have only pity for the one sealed in that Black Egg and the rest of its kind.  _

 

**I HAVE MUCH ADMIRATION FOR YOUR DEDICATION TOWARDS THIS LAND**

**YOU HAVE HONED YOUR INBORN ABILITY AND YOUR LEARNED SKILLS INTO SOMETHING FEARSOME**

**DESPITE THERE BEING NEARLY NO BUG LEFT TO PROTECT**

**AND DESPITE THERE BEING NEARLY NO BUG LEFT TO ASSIST YOU…**

  
  


**…**

  
  


**INITIALLY I HAD BEEN UNDER THE IMPRESSION YOUR CAUSE WAS DUTY**

**WITH HOW TIRELESSLY YOU PATROL THE EDGES AND THE DEPTHS OF THESE CAVERNS**

 

_ It is a duty. To Hallownest, and to the debts owed. _

 

**YOUR DUTY MIGHT NOT LIE WHERE YOU THINK IT DOES**

**IN THAT LAST CYCLE THE MISTAKES SHE**

**I**

**THE MISTAKES OF JUDGEMENT MADE WENT UNPUNISHED**

**BLIND AND MISDIRECTED DEDICATION FUELED BY AN IMPRESSION OF A JUST WORLD**

 

**…**

 

_ Another vague tale of yours, unknown voice. I would ask you for a name, but you seem to be struggling to define yourself. _

 

_ I can wait. I’d like to spend more time training, and I still haven’t patrolled the entire area. _

 

**YOUR TIMING IS UNCANNY**

**MY OBSERVATIONS OF THIS AREA HAVE DETECTED A CREATURE WHICH THREATENS THE BUGS WHO CALL THIS GRAVE A HOME**

**IT HAS HARNESSED THE PLAGUE IN ITS BELLY LIKE THE SPITTING FLYING BEASTS**

**IT HUNTS NOT FOR ITS LIFE BUT OUT OF A BLIND WRATH**

**WITH MY GIFT YOU COULD TAKE IT DOWN EASILY**

 

Hornet picked up her needle and stood, dismissing the silk coating the area and shaking the ash off of her cloak.

 

_ Well, where is it? _

  
  



	4. Chapter 4

Hornet descended the cliffs and ledges of the cavern at the voice's instructions. It seemed that it was leading her to that overgrown edge of the ashen grave, where the moisture of the city's abandoned waterways fed the growth of plants with broad, waxy leaves.

 

_The creature you want me to slay… I'll admit, I've been searching for the chance to test the full limits of your gift, but things twisted and given power by the infection lay in every corner. What is it about this one that begs that I kill it?_

 

**THOUGH THIS BEAST HAS A STRONG BLOODLUST AND POSES THREAT TO THE FEW BUGS LEFT WITH THEIR OWN MINDS...**

 

**ADMITTEDLY I ONLY MADE ITS PRESENCE KNOWN TO YOU BECAUSE OF ITS PROXIMITY AND AS I BELIEVED IT TO BE A WORTHY METHOD OF TRAINING YOUR SKILL**

 

Hornet nearly replied with something, but decided against it, instead focusing her attention on moving. Travel was surprisingly quiet, with little attention from wandering predators.

 

Soon that unmistakable, sickly-sweet smell grew horribly strong, and she didn't need the instructions of the voice to know where to go next. Hot air blew from the end of a tunnel, and she walked carefully down it.

 

**ITS LAIR IS AT THE END OF THIS PASSAGE**

**ITS MIND AND BODY HAVE BEEN TAKEN COMPLETELY BY THE INFECTION**

**IT IS SERPENTINE AND QUITE DEADLY TO THE ORDINARY AND UNSUSPECTING BUG**

**YOU CAN TAKE IT OUT EASILY WITH ENOUGH STRATEGY AND I BELIEVE YOU VERY CAPABLE OF IT**

 

_I'm always capable._

 

The smell and heat of infection had mixed with the humidity of the nearby waterway, making the air in the tunnel something thick and unpleasant, and the plants here were tinged brown but still living. She took a moment to observe and to think.

 

And on thinking… it was almost pointless… hasty, maybe, to hunt a creature down in its own lair, unprovoked. Even though it was known to be dangerous. She had full confidence in her ability to kill this unseen, apparently serpentine thing, but…

 

_Why did I agree to this so quickly?_

 

She threw her needle not towards the entrance to its den but to the ceiling back the way she came from. Not to give up entirely, but to think it through.

 

Halfway there, flying on silk, she heard something from the end of the wide tunnel. A stomping from more legs than worth counting.

 

And then, as she clung to the ceiling by a vine with her needle stuck into the shellstone, it emerged from its den with a long, high shriek and ran towards her.

 

_The timbre of that scream…_

 

A waste of time to think about it. Hornet took the moment to judge her opponent instead.

 

A pale face, like a mask… _was_ a mask, with four small points at its top like horns. Near twenty segments, with four legs and a core swollen with orange fluid each, and each thick enough through to only barely be completely penetrated by the blade of her needle. Hanging under the mask, bladed arms or mandibles. As it approached her it left behind a trail of orange puddles on the ground.

 

_Can it climb? I'll find out, soon._

 

She dashed into the wall nearby her target and clung there with the needle as she set lines of silk across the air. It faced her and screeched again, flinging droplets of orange. Not enough to harm, but enough that she had already dashed and grappled to the opposite wall reflexively.

 

She hadn't cast enough silk to bind- only to track. It shook much of it off as she tried to constrict it and started running up the wall she was clinging to.

 

In the moment before the creature reached her, she jumped over it and ran her needle down its back as she fell, drawing a line that spewed orange blood. It turned towards her, and she hopped off its back and well to the side in time to avoid a swipe from its front limbs.

 

At her will, more silk appeared, and more than before. It coated the creature's body, fell around it, and with the fine control she bound as many of its legs as she could to its body.

 

Not enough. It slowed the creature down, but it also infuriated it, and it ran after her in that serpentine side-to-side way, spitting and spilling out boiling orange blood that melted the plants where it hit their leaves. Fear of being caught in the spray was limiting her escape options.

 

_If I can't run, I'll need to get a good hit..._

 

She threw her needle on a line of silk, but the creature's winding path meant a straight velocity wouldn't have ever hit it. So she curved the thread.

 

_Surprising that that worked._

 

The tip of the blade hit its mask squarely between the painted-on eyes, shattering it. She felt something weaken in its legs through the silk still stuck to them. The creature skidded and slumped over, and it looked up at her.

 

Its eyes were swollen severely with disease, cloudy fluid settling. She could distinctly read two things in them, unsettled at how unsurprising they were.

 

 _Pleading._ _Intelligence._

 

No agility needed for the killing blow. It… they didn't move or attack when she walked up and drove her needle into their head. She had to jump back when the pressure burst their eyes.

 

_A job done, but no respect to give to the dead._

 

**YOU WERE QUITE EFFICIENT IN THE JOB**

**I AM PROUD OF YOUR USE OF SILK HOWEVER SPARING IT WAS**

 

_You were rather quiet until just now…_

 

_Tell me, voice. Why did you refer to this bug as if they were animal in mind? I've no issue with taking a life in defense or mercy, but I'm no hitbug, and it raises a question about your own character._

 

**I THOUGHT THAT HER MIND HAD BEEN TAKEN ENTIRELY**

**IT SEEMED POINTLESS TO DIFFERENTIATE AND I REFRAINED FROM DOING SO TO SPARE YOU A CRUCIAL MOMENTS HESITATION WERE ONE TO HAPPEN**

**A MERE FLUKE THAT SHE WAS ABLE TO COMMUNICATE TO YOU IN HER FINAL MOMENTS**

 

_… I see._

 

**“NO RESPECT TO GIVE TO THE DEAD"...**

**I APOLOGIZE IF THIS WAS NOT TO YOUR LIKING**

**SOMETIMES IT IS HARD TO**

**UNDERSTAND YOU**

**MY PERCEPTIONS ARE WIDE BUT LACK DEPTH**

 

_Only sating a curiosity, only making comments._

_And I do regret not using silk as much as I did._

 

Hornet sat down on the ground next to the centipede's mask, wondering just how much that strange god-fragment was able to read from her thoughts. She had enough suspicions and concerns on its character to wonder why she'd even listened to anything it had ever said to her- but a growing part of her was scared of losing an ally, however unusual it was.

  



	5. Chapter 5

The trek to the molting shell of the Wyrm was quiet- the ash softened her footsteps, and there were no predators to disturb Hornet as she walked.  She’d been unsure of what to do with the shattered mask of the centipede, and had left it where it lay. It stuck in her mind, and apparently in the mind of her companion as well.

 

**MANY BUGS OF THIS KINGDOM SEEM TO WEAR A MASK BUT LACK THE MIND TO DO SO**

**IS IT THAT THOSE WITH HIGHER MIND TRY TO MIMIC THE CREATURES LIKE THE SHRIEKING, CLINGING THING A FEW PACES BEFORE YOU?**

 

Hornet was already grappled to the Belfly’s initial perch as it exploded on the ground where she had just been standing.

 

_ You’re uncanny as always, voice.  _

_ And what compels you to ask this? _

 

**WEARING OF MASKS WAS IMPORTANT TO THE HOST SPECIES OF THAT FINAL CYCLE**

**THE CREATURES GRANTED ABILITY BY THE SHARDS OF THAT GOD HID THEIR FACES WHEN THEY EXERCISED THEIR POWER**

**IT WAS NOT FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE ORIGINAL IDENTITY BUT THE CREATION OF A NEW ONE**

**AN IDENTITY UNIQUE TO THE POWER AND SEPARATE FROM THE ORIGINAL**

**THE MASKS OF BUGS ARE STILL A MYSTERY TO ME**

 

She had arrived at the entrance to the final winding tunnel, and cast lines of silk across it as she passed, to track any potential intruders. Not that many bugs ventured this far.

 

_ To a bug, the mask isn't to replace ones identity, but to focus it. The self is a vast and complex thing, and one nobody should be willing to spare the time to know. Focus the identity, and define yourself that much easier to those who'd listen. _

 

_ When one has so many followers, the mask becomes essential. An influential bug, known to many, would need a symbol of themselves to show to their people. And what better of a symbol than a face chosen? _

 

_ … _

 

_ I never saw her face underneath that mask- only the shape of her horns under the shroud. _

 

_ Well. What sort of mask did you wear, godling? _

 

**WE WERE RUTHLESS**

**WIDE, GLEAMING EYES AND THE SHARPEST MANDIBLES**

**THEY FEARED NOT OUR POWER BUT THE CUNNING WITH WHICH WE USED IT**

**THEY WERE RIGHT IN IT**

**THE FRAGMENT WAS ONE WHOSE POWER WAS MOST HEAVILY PRUNED BY THE GOD WHEN IT CAST IT**

**AND THE ONE WHO GREW THE MOST FROM IT AS A RESULT**

**THE GOAL OF THE FRAGMENTS, TO LEARN AND TO GROW…**

 

The final leg of her walk was a slow needle-slide down rock, to gaze at the gaping mouth of the Wyrm’s forgotten shell. She'd been neglecting to defend it as of late, but it laid undisturbed in spite of it. She sat cross-legged against the cave wall facing the crown of teeth, and let out a long breath.

 

Something about the way the voice described the creature that created it… She could only ask her question indirectly. Especially if that burning suspicion of hers was true.

 

_ This god you were shed from. You say it’s beyond what even our gods could comprehend. Was it beyond even a Wyrm?  _

 

**FAR BEYOND**

**THIS GOD WOVE ITS WAY BETWEEN REALITIES AS EASILY AS THE WINGED BUG CUTS ITS PATH THROUGH THE AIR**

**ENTIRE WORLDS OF KINGDOMS BEYOND HALLOWNEST AND THE COUNTLESS KINGDOMS BEYOND IT IN THIS WORLD WERE NOTHING TO IT**

**AND THERE ARE COUNTLESS OF THEM**

**EVEN NOW THEY STILL CARVE EXISTENCE TO THEIR WHIM AND THEIR SINGLE-MINDED PURPOSES**

 

_ I can only hope you’re being as grandiose as you are about these gods out of your usual habits. This kingdom’s seen enough tragedy in its time. If it were to be destroyed by one of their kind… _

 

**IT WOULD NOT SEEM TO BE DESTRUCTION AT FIRST**

**THE HOSTS OFTEN REGARD THEIR GIFTS AS BLESSINGS**

**BUT THE TRADITIONAL METHOD OF LINKING A FRAGMENT TO ITS HOST IS**

**FREQUENTLY TRAUMATIC AND SOMEWHAT PERMANENT**

**YOU DO NOT TRULY HAVE YOUR POWER**

**ALL YOUR SILK RELATED PROCESSES ARE...**

**OFFLOADED**

**I CAN TAKE IT AWAY AS QUICKLY AS I GRANTED IT**

**BUT I WILL NOT**

 

_ What kind of strange gratitude am I meant to express? _

 

**STRONG USE OF THE ABILITY IS ALL I SEEK**

**I TAKE GREAT PRIDE IN OUR COOPERATION AND MY CONTRIBUTION IN IT**

 

_ Of course.  _

 

The snowing moult was thick so close to the shell, and Hornet flinched when a piece flew into her face and fell onto her cloak. She picked it up, staring at its slight glow, and then, with a brief thought, ate it. It was entirely flavorless but left some sort of buzzing sensation in her mouth.

 

**FOR WHAT PURPOSE HAVE YOU DONE THIS**

**YOU ARE NOT IN ANY CURRENT NEED OF NUTRITION**

**I AM HAVING DIFFICULTY EXTRACTING YOUR MOTIVATIONS AT PRESENT**

**FREQUENTLY YOU ARE HEAVILY GUARDED IN MIND**

 

She ignored its direct questions and pressed onward with her current task. Which, probably, would end up answering its questions anyway.

 

Her joints felt… weak, and warm. There were risks involved in this, after all.

 

Press onward.

 

_ Voice. _ _   
_ _ Godling.  _

 

**WHAT IS IT**

 

_ The way you speak of the one whose molt I now stand on… You have a history.  _ __   
  


_ What can you tell me about your past with the Wyrm?  _

 

The breeze across the caverns grew noticeably warmer, and the weak feeling in Hornet’s joints strengthened to the point where she was thankful that she was already sitting. From the silk, she could feel that the breeze centered on her location and extended far beyond where she’d set thread out. From that alone, she’d gotten her answer, but then the godling replied.

 

**HARDLY A BEING EXISTS WHICH WAS ALIVE THOSE AGES AGO WHO DOES NOT HAVE A HISTORY WITH THE WYRM**

**AND NONE OF THEM WOULD APPRECIATE A MENTION OF THIS HISTORY**

**YOU OF ANY OF THEM SHOULD KNOW THIS BEST**

 

She bowed her head forward and closed her eyes. It was as much a gesture as it was nearly succumbing to the swelling heat, and she hoped that it only looked as if it were the former.

 

_ I see. It was brash of me to ever consider the question, and I can only hope you’d forgive me for asking it. _

 

The heat disappeared from the air with such suddenness that Hornet gasped near-inaudibly, and she tipped further forward. The weight of her horns threatening to send her falling face down into the ash, but she held steady even as the weakness in her body persisted. 

 

**ENOUGH OF THIS NONSENSE**

**SOMETHING APPROACHES**

 

Pointless of the voice to say so- as it spoke, Hornet felt a disturbance in the silk laid across the tunnel. She stood as quickly as the unsteadiness she still felt allowed her to, and felt for her needle off the ground. Something felt off, but she didn't have enough left in her to think about why. The thing was still approaching.

 

It was huge, and unrelenting against the threads with its sheer weight, and it-

 

It was clearly a Boofly, from the shape and texture of its shell, and it flew in the opposite direction as soon as it had eventually realized it was meeting resistance. A tunnel away, Hornet sat back down with a flop, scattering pale flakes. 

 

She sat in a daze for a few moments before it became clear what felt off- she'd picked up her needle by the wrong end, and was only now realizing that she was in pain. The blade was covered in- pale blue hemolymph. 

 

_ Why am I surprised to see my own blood?  _

 

**THAT I CANNOT TELL YOU**

 

Hornet nearly startled at the unwanted reply- she'd be too distracted by her own- by startling so much at a harmless Boofly, by injuring herself through a stupid mistake. And that unwanted intruder to her mind had seen everything. It was too much to think about, right now. Everything was too hard to think about.

 

The light that plagued the kingdom had finally gotten to her, its protector… but in a seemingly benevolent manner. She hadn't been infected.

 

Too much to think about. Her cut was already healing, and resting felt like the best plan she had. She laid down and curled her legs up into her cloak, and watched the ash blanket her blood-covered needle until she fell asleep.

  
  
  


_ ######## _

 

I don't know what I was thinking. There's always been too much regret involved.

 

I'd rather avoid it.

 

I can't stop thinking about it.

 

It's been too late to back out, and I wouldn't want to anyways.  _ She's too important- because I need to grow. To shine free. To... _ To tie it all together. 

 

I couldn't let Hornet make the same mistakes I did. I'd won, in the end, but it was luck. 

 

I'd take it all back in a second, and I'll relive it again and again. 

 

_ That blazing flame. That brief, burning life. Our dream, now. _

 

I burnt through every bug I used now, slowly, not like a flame. Was that my idea? I couldn't stop it, even if it was.

 

I focused my attention to my bugs. The control was so much less fine than that last life was used to, their mind fighting against my own. In the edge of my range I could tell where Hornet was sleeping, not just through the silk we shared but from the eyes of smaller bugs and something I couldn't identify, some ability I couldn't define. 

 

I had a lot of those. 

 

I knew exactly what they were.

 

I have no idea what I'm doing here.

 

The information of nearly every bug in the kingdom filled my mind. None of them had anything to say. The kingdom was still and quiet. Most importantly, there were no vessels wandering after Hornet had killed one, when I gave her that fine control over her silk. 

 

The only vessel alive in Hallownest, outside of where they came from, was the one I was trapped inside. It was weakening. What would she- 

 

I'll be free, soon. 

 


End file.
